NYC Mayor Bloomberg on Steve Jobs, Entrepreneurship, and NYC

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Bloomberg got fired as an IT guy, then rebounded back to start his own IT business selling his products/services to the same people that fired him. Today he is the Mayor of New York and envisions NYC as a major hub of innovation and entrepreneurship. His story is not too different from the late and inspirational Steve Jobs. Oh, and did I mention GMAT Pill was featured in Bloomberg Businessweek here?

Bloomberg’s View on Business Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is increasingly becoming a popular field of study at top MBA programs across the country. My alma mater (Stanford) is most well known for its entrepreneurial spirit, but other programs including Wharton and MIT Sloan have solid programs in the study of entrepreneurship as well.

Last, GMATPill had the luxury of listening to Mayor Bloomberg give a speech about entrepreneurship at NY Tech Meetup. For those of you who don’t know, Mayor Bloomberg used to work on wall street–in the back office way back in the early 70s. He actually got FIRED and rumor has it that he “cried like a baby.”
Getting fired can’t be fun so I’m sure a lot of us would be pretty desperate in his shoes as well.

But Bloomberg didn’t give up. He figured with all the work that he did at the investment bank, he could just independently start his own business and sell that same stuff to clients. It wasn’t easy but he mustered through.

As he says in the speech, the first year is easy because you’ve got all your hopes up and your motivation is there. The third year is easy as well because you see the light at the end of the tunnel and you know you’re results are about to come.

But it’s the middle year that is the toughest – when you’ve gone a long way but haven’t gotten any results yet. Motivation isn’t quite as strong as it was in the beginning and you don’t know if you’re on the right track.

This is the risk in entrepreneurship. But Bloomberg adapted with things like the rise of the PC at the time and other trends in the market. He started selling terminals to all the banks in NY – and today it’s one of the most well-established brands in data services for all of finance.

Oh, right to top all of that, he’s also the MAYOR OF NEW YORK – the epicenter of all business in the western hemisphere and possibly the entire world.

So listen up to Bloomberg’s speech. He talks about Steve Jobs – similarities they both have (both got fired from their company and rebounded to the point where the former company worked for them) and both believe in listening to your customers — but not TOO much.

He also talks about his vision for driving NYC to be the a hub of entrepreneurship and innovation at the same level as Silicon Valley.

If you want to start your own business one day, you’ll learn a thing or two! Take a listen!

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